Club Gay Gardens: Where Queer Community Takes Root in Los Angeles Soil
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A small, unassuming parkway garden on glendale’s Brand Boulevard has blossomed into a vibrant hub for Los Angeles’ queer community, offering connection, education, and a shared space to nurture both plants and belonging. Club Gay Gardens, founded in 2022, cultivates more than just native flora; it’s fostering a sense of home and resilience for a community often seeking safe and affirming spaces.
From Neglected Strip to Thriving Sanctuary
Initially, the parkway strip was largely ignored. In 2022, it was primarily maintained by one individual before co-founders Maggie Smart-McCabe and Linnea Torres connected through Instagram and envisioned a collaborative effort. “We were like, ‘Let’s try and just call out and see if we can get some volunteers to show up,'” Smart-McCabe recalled. And peopel did. For months, the initial work involved intensive soil planning – the ground was so compacted that digging a single planting hole could take an hour to drain – followed by sheet mulching and teaching. By the following spring, the first wildflowers signaled a turning point.
A Space for All Green Thumbs
Today,Club Gay Gardens welcomes attendees of all ages and botanical skill levels. Meetings, held on the last Sunday of each month, begin with introductions – pronouns are optional, astrological signs are encouraged – before participants divide into groups focused on tasks like seed sorting, paving, planting, and even “detailers” (a playful term for the trash crew).
The garden has proven to be a fertile ground for personal and professional growth. Juno Stilley, a regular attendee since 2023, credits the club with providing the confidence and resources to launch Juno Garden, her own landscape design and maintenance business. “I always learn something when I’m here,” stilley said, “because ther’s so many people who come with different sorts of plant knowledge, and there’s infinite different things about plants and ecology.”
Rooting for the Underdog
The ethos of Club Gay Gardens extends beyond horticulture.Nina Raj, founder of the Altadena Seed Library, sees a powerful metaphor in the group’s dedication to nurturing a challenging space. “Every seed needs certain conditions to thrive, and I think so do people,” Raj explained. “Especially for queer folks, I think that’s a potent metaphor.” She added, “There’s something really potent about queer people rooting for the underdog.”
Smart-McCabe and Torres intentionally sought to deconstruct customary gardening archetypes.Inspired by the documentary “Gray Gardens,” which chronicles the eccentric lives of Edith and Edith Beale, the club embraces a spirit of unconventionality and self-expression. Gardeners at meetups can be seen sporting everything from overalls to babydoll dresses, reflecting the diverse personalities within the group.
Beyond the Parkway: Expanding the Garden’s reach
Club Gay Gardens’ impact extends beyond the glendale parkway. Each year,the group hosts Pisces Plantasia,an event featuring native plant resources,local artists,and fundraising for social justice causes. In recent years, proceeds have benefited the Altadena Seed Library and the No Canyon Hills legal defense fund.
Looking ahead, Smart-McCabe hopes to establish satellite locations across Los Angeles and expand professional progress opportunities for local gardeners. A recent grant will support a six-week course on working safely with contaminated soils, notably relevant in the wake of the January wildfires in Altadena and Pacific Palisades.
Smart-McCabe frequently enough reflects on a saying about native plants in Southern California: “First they sleep, then they creep, then they leap.” She sees a parallel between this slow, steady growth and the evolution of Club Gay gardens itself. As she discussed the details of the new grant with fellow gardeners in late September, Bex Muñoz began to tear up. “We’re leaping,” they said, encapsulating the collective momentum and hopeful future of this unique and thriving community garden.
